my journey from gluttonous to glorious

Day 464: Out Of Options

There are just tons of options out there. These are more “lifestyles” of eating rather than diet programs (e.g. WeightWatchers, Jenny Craig, etc). I went vegetarian last year but that was simply because it was essentially what a Daniel Fast was which is what I was going for… well, actually… a Daniel Fast is really vegan (here’s a list) but since I was going to do it for a year instead of for just three weeks, I decided to keep in dairy… and fish… and eggs. So yeah. Apparently, I made up my own Daniel Fast.

Well, since my recent redoing of the whole covenant process back when I was at the MomsAway retreat (and just in case you don’t have a mental catalog running of all of my posts, it was back on Day 444: So. Worth. It.), I have been praying (well, honestly, only been praying a little) about what to do with my overall “diet”. And I don’t mean diet as in… an eating plan to make one lose weight, but I mean… my diet as in, what will I eat? Will I eat meat? bread? dairy? processed? fish? eggs? pasta? rice?

Seriously, there are a gazillion options.

And I wasn’t sure which one to go with. I mean, I already feel a little guilty just having to CHOOSE a dietary plan when massive chunks of the world have a dietary plan of, oh, you know… rice. But, I’m not even going to start to dip into issues with food-guilt, so let’s just work with the situation that I’m given here.

What it mainly boils down to is that when I did pray about it or think about it, I just kept hearing the words: go back to the beginning. Pretty sure that it’s “me” hearing “me” say that, but considering that I have been asking Him for wisdom about what to do with all this He could have just made “me” tell “me” what to do.

Well, back at “the beginning” there was the Daniel Fast, so I decided to do a Daniel Fast-Diet from now until the time I go on a trip with my fam for my brother’s birthday weekend in mid-May. I call it a Daniel Fast-Diet because I’m not really fasting in the sense that I’m praying over something that grieves me like Daniel did. I suppose I would call it Vegan, but for some reason I can get on board so much more easily with a “Daniel Fast” than I can with something called Vegan! Ha!

Anyway, I started the Daniel Fast on Tuesday and already I feel so. much. better. Just one day in and I’d already felt leaner and just, well, better. I know that this is just another step in the journey… coming full circle (again) to realize that food is here to make my machine (my body) run efficiently. I am reminded again of this verse:

You say, “I am allowed to [eat] anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to [eat] anything”—but not everything is beneficial.1 Corinthians 10:23

And it just seems like whenever I’m eating Daniel Fast-ish that I feel… like it’s beneficial. I feel like it’s good for me. And I feel like it shows me so quickly how much I’m eating of bread and pasta and rice and and and… all those “extras”. So, it’s just cool that, without reading a bunch of reports or counting my calories or whatever, I can know what is beneficial for my body. Anyway, I have a feeling that being a vegan (I think that’s what it is) for just under a month will show me a lot. about me. about food. and hopefully a lot a lot about God!

Comments

He was like, “mom, you are too busy setting up the perfect shot and I’m dying over here. You snooze, you lose, lady.” (It’s a great picture, btw. Love his expression and those big beautiful eyes.) Also, as JT would say, “bring it on down to veganville” ha! Welcome to the dark side. (insert maniacal laugh here). In all seriousness, though, I’m glad you wrote this. I’ve been stuck lately. And a big fat cheater. Think I need to get back to basics, myself. And for the love, I need to just learn to enjoy the apple plain, not mounded with peanut butter. Acceptable, yes. Beneficial, no.

I think my hold up to vegan is just the cheese. And that’s weird cause it’s not so much that I love it that much as it is that I just am so USED to cooking with it. I need to go back to that post you wrote about the good cookbooks and just plan out a bunch of meals to show myself that it’s not that hard. I had to do that very thing when I went vegetarian… so, it’s like you said, “For the love…” I just need to hop on amazon and get it done.

When I did my 7 fast, I tried to limit my foods as much as possible and cheese was not something I allowed that week. It was difficult to give it up, but I only had 11 foods/condiments to choose from so I was in withdrawal from everything else, too. Plus the Holy Spirit and I did some work that week. When we got off the fast, I decided to leave it out altogether. And I loved cheese. Loved it. Cheese sticks, cheddar shreds, pepper jack, mozzarella, parmesan. Cheese was my love language. My fave date was going to a local wine bar/restaurant and having wine and cheese. But now, the few times I’ve had it because I couldn’t avoid it, I didn’t even enjoy it because all I taste is fat. Because essentially, that’s all it is. Concentrated animal fat. And that makes me gag. So as long as I believe that, I think I’ll be okay. So now you maybe understand a little better why I really don’t even bother trying to replicate it in recipes. It’s just not the same. So I stopped trying.

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Meet Me

Hey there, friend, my name is January! Almost two years ago, realizing I was addicted to food (mainly sugar) I made a covenant with God to only eat certain foods and I'm blogging my way through it!

I'd love for you to join me on this journey as we seek God to help us through addiction to food, gluttony, overeating... whatever you want to call it. I truly believe that through covenanting with God that we can be free of this weight that brings us down, and we can move from gluttonous to glorious!